Ramblings of a Field Target Junky

So winter finally arrived in the Rochester, New York. I came back from a company trip out west to brutal cold and snow.But this hasn't stopped me from practicing. I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot my personal course so much before winter finally set in. Now I'm downstairs in the basement shooting a 3/8" target kneeling and standing several times a day if not more.One lesson I learned early on is that you HAVE TO LIKE KNEELING AND STANDING. If you don't you can pretty much count yourself out of any placings in a competition. I started out just wanting to throw pellets at the targets instead of proving to myself that I couldn't hit the damn things. Then it dawned on me that I'm probably losing 8-12 points on targets simply because I don't do well on them, or don't like them. Once I realized that I realized that in order to "like" these positions I'd have to practice them....A LOT!Nice thing about having such a quiet shooting platform is that you can shoot inside. All you need is a good backstop. And backstops are easy to come by. One option is a rubber mulch filled box, which is inexpensive and easily replaced. Simply put your paper target up there and start shooting away.In my case I have a basement with 9 yards available, 10 if I really wanted to move some things around. Being in the basement I'm also not too concerned about the lead pellets after they hit the target so I switched from shooting paper to shooting an actual 3/8" drop-down Gamo target. Personally, I felt as though shooting paper got "boring" and I would always error on the side of "it would have gone down" more often than admitting it was a bad shot. Now it's either hit or miss. There are times when I'll get 9/10 standing and 10/10 kneeling, while others won't be nearly as good.PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!I never said it would be easy, but eventually you'll notice that you'll be knocking down more than you did yesterday and more than the day before that. Hopefully you'll get to the point where you don't mind the standing/kneeling lanes as much as you did.Just because you are better then you were, you can't stop now. Shooting is a perishable skill and more so standing/kneeling. So you need to continue practicing, set aside time, do what you need to make time...just do it.